The Spinner's Book of Yarn Designs: Techniques for Creating 80 Yarns

Description

Discover the satisfying fun of spinning your own yarn! This step-by-step guide shows you how to create 80 distinctive yarn types, from classics like mohair boucle to novelties like supercoils. Covering the entire spinning process, Sarah Anderson describes the unique architecture of each type of yarn and shares expert techniques for manipulating and combining fibres. Take your crafting to a new level and ensure that you have the best yarn available by spinning it yourself.

Sarah Anderson has been spinning since the age of 13. She teaches at many venues, including SOAR (Spin-Off Autumn Retreat), and has contributed knit designs to All New Homespun and Handknit. One of her custom techniques, which she calls "wrap and roll", was featured on the cover of Spin-Off magazine in 2008. Sarah lives in Washington State.

This inspired resource for spinners details the dizzying array of techniques and tactics that turn fleece into yarn. Veteran spinner Anderson has created a veritable spinner's cookbook, detailing 80 lovely concoctions and confections, with suggestions for variations and further exploration. The opening chapter covers basic fiber preparation and spinning techniques. Chapters on singles, the spinner's basic building block, detail techniques for stand-alone singles and singles for plying; subsequent chapters cover spiral yarns, opposing plies, boucles, cable, crepe, coil, and novelty yarns. Delicious varieties such as spiral "flame yarn," "bubble crepe," "cloud yarn," and distinctive "pigtail yarn" are detailed. Beautiful illustrations and clear step-by-step diagrams are offered for each of the 80 yarns that are discussed, and pop-out boxes with tips, tricks, and food for thought (for example, "lace knitting: two-ply versus three-ply") pepper each chapter. The pages have thoughtful side tab labels to make finding the right section easy. Inventive, accessible, and fun, this book is an invitation to spinners of all skill levels to venture into uncharted territory and try out something new. This beautiful reference is an essential addition to any spinner's library.